Thailand - Bangkok

We’ve just taken our penultimate flight on this wonderful adventure we’re having and landed in Bangkok. We were picked up at the airport by an extremely OTT guide and we were rather thankful he was only transferring us not guiding us around town, particularly as he took us to the wrong hotel!

With just two days in Bangkok we knew we would only scratch the surface, but what we’ve seen we’ve loved. Our hotel, the Arun Residence was in the old part of town and Wat Po, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace are literally on your doorstep. We’d chosen it from reading someone else’s blog and it did not disappoint. We had a lovely spacious room, the Ratchapreuk Suite which has the most amazing view of Wat Arun, even from the bathroom as they had created an open window space so that you could see this spectacular temple even whilst you’re in the shower! At night especially Wat Arun is a sight to behold as it’s lit beautifully from top to bottom and just bathed in a soft orange light. Any time I woke up in the night I'd sit up and gaze at a sight you can't believe. At dawn as the sun creeps up it starts to pick out some tiny hanging bells which glisten like beautiful jewels. I don’t think I could ever tire of that view.



The hotel has a really great restaurant called The Deck – exactly that where you could dine on lovely Thai food, a good wine list (we tried a bottle of Thai white wine as we hadn't heard of it before or any Thai wine come to that – it was actually very good) and watch the world go by on the river. Plenty of varied traffic – long tail boats whizzing tourists to and fro , the ferries and then there’s the barges. These don’t appear to be self-powered on this part of the river so you see a relatively small tug boat separated by a long cable attached to no less than 4 vast barges which it tows up and down the river. The small crew lives on the boat so each barge has washing hanging out, a hammock and their cooking pots.

On the roof of the hotel is a great discreet open air bar and as the hotel only has three floors you have an even better view of Wat Arun than from the room. Great place to go for a cocktail and to wait for a table for dinner.

On our first afternoon we walked across the road to Wat Po – it is magnificent and is where the Reclining Buddha is housed. It is huge, 34m long and completely covered in gold. For the next two days we were to just overwhelmed with the palaces and temples we saw in Bangkok. They are restoring Wat Po and so like at the Citadel in Hue there are artisans working all over the place. The colours of the temples are so bright and vibrant, lots of gold and red. The roofs are burnished with gold and shimmer in the Sun. They also use an abundance of broken pieces of pottery to make friezes on the walls and pillars. When originally built they were shipping plates from China which were broken in transit and the King said the broken pieces should be used in this way and the effect is amazing. It’s quite difficult to explain how overwhelming the size and beauty of it all is – you just have to see it.

Our first full day and we’d arranged our own guide who came via Tongs Tours. Her name was Get and she was lovely and very genteel. She took us around the Grand Palace which is definitely something you don’t want to attempt on your own – you’d get lost for one thing, it is enormous. The royal family King Rama IX doesn’t live there anymore as they built a new royal residence about 3 or 4 miles out but it is still used for State visits and his birthday etc.

We then took a powerful long tail boat ride around the amazing canal system which is a real treat to see. Lining the waterways there's a contrast of quite affluent houses immediately next to shanty type dwellings which look as though they will topple into the water at any time. It really is a city of contrasts.

Our guide tried to take us to a very safe restaurant. You'd think you were at disneyland with paper mats with mickey mouse on them. Earlier in our trip we probably politely would have agreed but not today and suggested to her that we wanted to go somewhere she would eat. She looked rather surprised and not hugely happy about it in case we got ill but we went all the same. Wasn't hugely inspiring as we probably weren't where she would have picked but that's where we were, but it was tasty and very cheap. They didn't have any of the delicous rice puddings they do but she introduced us to a black jelly which is coloured by a plant. Doesn't taste of anything so they put brown granulated sugar on the top and it's mixed with crushed ice. You wonder why they don't add it when they're making it, would be much better. She says her children love it and was quite surprised we didn't finish our huge chunk of wobbling black jelly!

In the afternoon we went to China Town. It's enormous and we walked through the market which sold everything that wasn't food. We must have walked over a mile through a tiny pathway between all the stalls. After a while you thought you couldn't really look at another hair accessory or flower shirt. I think the best and most interesting part of China town is probably at night, but we were going out to dinner that evening.

By huge comparison to lunch, for dinner we went to the Labua Tower restaurant which was somewhere we'd been recommended by Tim at Bamboo Travel and we'd managed to book a table on line whilst we were still in Phu Quoc. We realised afterwards from the small print that if you don't turn up they charge your credit card $100!! The restaurant is on the 64 floor and you dine under the stars, I will never forget the incredible feeling as we stepped out of the lift onto the terrace high above the night life of Bangkok, a live four piece band were playing and a female singer sang classic 40's songs. There was a extraordinary bar which seemed to be hanging in the sky and the trendy and well heeled of Bangkok were gathered in all of their splendour chatting and drinking away this balmy Friday evening. We were shown to our lovely table and for the next two hours we wined and dined at one of the most spectacular restaurants in the world. We chose the tasting menu and the food and service was sublime. Between courses we walked over to the bar and when we glanced over the edge we did become rather weak at the knees!
We rapidly returned for our next course.

Next day - our last day, and we packed for the last time and put our luggage in reception. Our flight wasn't leaving until midnight so we had the whole day. We were on our own, no guide and hadn't really researched Bangkok at all. Bit of a mistake as it's huge. Anyway we set off on the boat upriver heading for Siam Square. I envisaged some nice shops surrounding a nice big square. Wrong, or at least if it does have a part like that we didn't find it. Enroute though we went to a little area with some lovely shops where we bought a few presents to take home. We'd left most of them to the end so we didn't have to carry them all around Vietnam. We took a Tuk Tuk to Siam Square as the walk looked quite long. Thank goodness - it was miles and you realise too that Tuk Tuks are not for the middle of the day as we sat for ages at a standstill in a traffic jam in the smoke, dust and heat. We read later that a road we'd seen on the map is the longest in Asia and one of the longest in the world. Gives you some scope as to the size of the city which we hadn't realised. Eventually our tuk tuk arrived at a bladerunner type city of 1000's of shops and high walkways. We didn't stay long as it wasn't what we thought and so jumped onto the skytrain which seemed the quickest way out of there and we'd wanted to do that anyway. This took us to another area which we thought might be something - middle of nowhere! We were quite hungry by now and suddenly spied a Burger King. Could we? yes we could and it was delicious!! We weren't too enamoured with the metropolis part of Bangkok so headed back to the river for a boat back to our hotel. We also wanted to visit the Chakrabonse Villas which are just a few streets down from the Arun Residence and consists of a large and beautiful wooden house where the owners live and they have built 4 or 5 other villas in beautiful lush gardens which go down to the river. It has a lovely pool and wooden sala on the river's edge where guests can take their meals. The owner has a splendid speed boat which can be chartered for sightseeing and picnics. Our rouse was to be shown round so we know for the future but also to have a quick swim to get rid of some of the dust. The chap on the phone said that would be fine but by the time we arrived someone had obviously said not. Evenso on arrival we were handed a towel and a lovely cup of tea and treated with great respect. It was like a little oasis and we would definitely consider it for the future if our budget would stretch to it.

It wasn't too long before we'd need to leave for the airport but we just had time for a massage. There's a place just by the boat terminal near Wat Pho with masseurs who have trained at the Wat Pho massage school. I had the most amazing foot massage and David a body massage. We left in a sublime state for a last drink at the bar on the roof of the Arun Residence and took in the views one last time. This bar's a little find and not particularly well known it would seem, for now.

Arriving at the airport was brilliant. If you're flying in Business or First with Thai Airways there's an airline porter on the pavement to greet you and take your bags to the desk. In two minutes we were checked in and directed to a bathroom and shower with lovely clean towels. Oh bliss. On the way back to the lounge we were treated to a half hour complimentary massage in the Thai Airways spa. Now this is the way to travel. And then, that was it, time to board and our trip really had come to an end. But the memories and the photos we have we will last for ever and ever.

We've got the bug so where shall we go next?!!